<MissScarlett: I'm in. Let me know all your plans.>

Messiah chessforum (kibitz #232)

The backstory begins here (kinda - we don't know all the trauma in <Messiah>'s childhood):

<King Death: Describe yourself in three words.>

<OhioChessFan: This is spectacular. It's so good, it makes me want to teach random strangers how to play chess, and then replay this game for them.>

The game of the day was a bit garbage, and I didn't understand the pun of the day... Koltanowski vs W Woodbury, 1939 & <"The Ghost of Morphy Bids You Move!"> - I think it's a quote from a very early computer game. Mephisto or Commodore or summit.

ANYWAY there was a superb quote at Koltanowski vs W Woodbury, 1939 (kibitz #14).

WELL DONE User: fredthebear.

<(Z-base, the source that not only whitens your game, but your teeth too!)>

<wrap99: Played a lot of 5-minute (him giving me generous, embarrassingly so, time odds) with WMD in the late 1970s.>

<MissScarlett: Yes, whatever happened to him?>

<wrap99: No idea, at least 31 years since i last saw him.>

<andrewjsacks: Nice guy, and strong and creative player>

<wrap99: definitely nice guy. that was chess for me: leaving the terrible place i lived to interact with bright and interesting chess players.>

<MissScarlett: And now you're here.>

<D Gukesh vs R Praggnanandhaa, 2024 (kibitz #13)>

I am thinking about that last round. In the UK the game started at 8:00pm. The games were in the opening stage at midnight. There was nail biting tension.

Here is my 2nd consecutive <Memorable Quotes>, and a bloody good one.

I <like> <FSR>... Do you know the joke about the Englishman and his umbrella?

<"I went to a psychiatrist who said that I am in love with my umbrella. Isn't that ridiculous!?
I mean, I LIKE my umbrella....">

I tremendously admire User: FSR, but internally I have strictures - but who cares. Here is the nubbins:

Here is his kibitz about the stupendous 108-move:

<Caruana vs Nepomniachtchi, 2024>

<39.Bh7?? Everyone was expecting Caruana to play the intuitive 39.Bc2!+-, dominating Nepo's knight. Game over, and Caruana would have played Gukesh today to determine Ding's challenger. The Canadian FM Gordon Taylor wrote an important but unfortunately little-remembered article in the May 15, 1989 issue of <Inside Chess>, introducing the concept of a "tesuji" move, a term he borrowed from go. This is a move placing a piece in such a way that it dominates another piece. An example is a bishop three orthogonal squares away from a knight, for instance in the Classical Caro-Kann where Black plays ...Bg6 dominating White's knight on g3. 39.Bc2! here would have been another such move. Taylor also cited a rare instance of a tesuji move being bad - 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nxe4 e5 4.Bc4 Be7? tesuji, but 5.Qh5!+-.

This is a great insight that deserves to be much better known. Taylor said that when a strong player has a tesuji move available and doesn't play it, that deserves explanation. The more I thought about it over the years, the more I thought his statement a profound insight. Other types of tesuji moves are a rook two diagonal squares away from a knight (e.g. Re4 versus Ng6 - rook takes away e5, e7, and f4 from knight) or a queen next to a knight (Qe4 versus Ne5 - queen takes away six of knight's eight squares, all except d7 and f7).>

Kenneth Rogoff (kibitz #50362)

A crazy quote spotted by User: dehanne.

I often post drivel because that is ME. I essentially talk to myself.

Teyss posts a load of sense. Today he posts a really good one.

Miles - Kasparov Match (1986) (kibitz #1)

The whole post is very good, but here is a special paragraph:

<How did this supremacy materialise in the present games? Mostly Miles sometimes lacked precision and Kasparov was relentlessly aiming to take advantage of any inaccuracy. His two long matches against Karpov in 1984 and 1985 (72 games in total) were trainings of the highest possible level since Karpov was renowned to be most accurate.>

BTW, there were other interesting replies.

I'll take the opportunity to nominate users in general, I don't have specific quotes in mind but might in the future. Here is hence my CG Hall of Fame, with no particular order.

User: offramp for his drivel, er, humour. His posts always make me smile.
User: Sally Simpson aka Geoff for his wit and anecdotes, mixed with relevant Chess comments.
User: goodevans for his relevant Chess comments mixed with tongue-in-cheek humour. Somewhat complementary to Geoff: we could say they are yin and yang, whilst offramp is the topping.
User: FSR for his deep knowledge and analyses.
User: perfidious for the same as well as his impeccable command of the language.
User: keypusher for the same, too bad we don't see more of him.
User: TheaN for his thorough analyses in POTDs. Too bad we don't see him in the GOTDs also.
User: Mayankk with the same comment.
User: Atterdag for his interesting posts in the events sections. Too bad we don't see him on the GOTD and POTD pages.
User: stone free or die for his (im)pertinence.

Jeremy Lim

<keypusher: In steeplechase, why don't they give the medals to the horses? #EquineEquityNow >

He has devised a cracking quote.

Firouzja vs Nakamura, 2024 (kibitz #2)

User: fabelhaft gave an <executive summary> of the history of the world chess championship:

<<Fabelhaft>: The question is how many World Champions that have nothing detracting from the title. Lasker and Alekhine handpicking opponents, Euwe being picked, Botvinnik tournament win, draw odds and rematches, Fischer never playing as World Champion, Karpov getting it by default and having help from all other top players against Korchnoi, Kramnik getting the match after losing to Shirov and then falling to 9th, Anand five years without super tournament wins, Ding with how he got to Candidates and title match, being the first player to become World Champion in speed chess tiebreak, and how he performed afterwards etc.>

Steinitz, Capablanca, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Kasparov, and Carlsen.

Hello? He's Russian.>

<Maybe Captain Kennedy suffered from the old English code of honour where the attacker must always move forward, and sideward passes (the Dutch Disease, introduced at Manchester United by Daley Blind) are prohibited.>

<sneaky pete
Member since Jun-03-04

You have nothing to fear but my library.>

NEEDED ASAP: One foolhardy individual with strong arms, climbing ability, good balance and endurance to clear multiple roofs of six feet of fresh snow. No experience required, just a good relationship with the almighty.>